24x28”. Oil on Linen. 2020

When I was a kid, I loved a book called The Boxcar Children which, if you can find the original unrevised text, told a pretty harrowing story of kids escaping from an abusive, alcoholic father and taking refuge in an abandoned boxcar in the middle of a forest. Exactly how a boxcar would wind up in a forest was never explained, but the two oldest kids had a great time, foraging for food and taking care of the bratty youngest brother and the sickly middle sister, whom I wouldn’t have missed too much had she succumbed to her chronic illnesses. The only thing that really disappointed me was the end, in which the kids are taken in by a kindly rich man and no longer live in the boxcar.

I thought of adding some children to this thing, but there was no way I could make downtown Ludlow, KY pass for a forest.